the crowd's
week

Blondshell
— Violins

album

LP · 25 Sep 2026 · Partisan

Sabrina Teitelbaum's third album, less than 18 months after the last — a dizzying pace. Between delicacy and hardness, generational anxiety and complicated relationships. "Two-Fried" is co-written with Samia. She grows record after record.

Sabrina Teitelbaum isn't slowing down: Violins is the third album she has released as Blondshell, and it arrives less than a year and a half after its predecessor, If You Asked For A Picture. The sound still lives between raw indie rock and the more melodic pop-rock of the 90s, but the writing has gained a new duality — delicacy on one side, the hardness of unspoken truths on the other, between her generation's anxiety and relationships that are never simple. The title track is the album's centre of gravity, about rising above adversity without losing tenderness; "Sea Legs" offers a dreamy breather, and "Fur Elise" closes on an almost forced note of hope. "Two-Fried" has Samia credited as co-writer, more proof that Teitelbaum keeps attracting the right company. Released on Partisan, it is the record that confirms the success of the debut was no fluke — she grows with every release.

critics 83 · users 74

Gurriers
— Nobody's Coming To Save You

album

LP · 25 Sep 2026 · Play It Again Sam

Second album, after the debut "Come and See" in 2024. The name comes from Dublin slang for street kids. Noise-rock that now draws on post-punk, grunge, alt-dance and experimental hip-hop. "Drones" sounds like Radiohead with Massive Attack.

Gurriers take their name from Dublin slang for restless street kids, and that unruly energy runs through Nobody's Coming To Save You, the band's second album after their debut Come and See (2024), released on Play It Again Sam. The five-piece — Dan Hoff on vocals, Ben O'Neill and Mark MacCormack on guitars, Charlie McCarthy on bass and Pierce O'Callaghan on drums — expand the noise-rock of their beginnings into post-punk, grunge, alt-dance and experimental hip-hop textures, without losing the urgency. The lyrics drop the easy metaphors: mental health, alienation, consumerism, anti-militarism and addiction, all said head-on. "Drones" is the high point, with electronic textures that recall Radiohead's Kid A crossed with Massive Attack; "Party Lines" is high-octane anti-war dance-punk, and "Crybaby" closes the record in something close to a stream of consciousness about addiction. They are still the most urgent bet in the new wave of Irish post-punk.

critics 80 · users 76

Julia Jacklin
— The Gem

album

LP · 25 Sep 2026 · 4AD

Fourth album, produced by Robert Muinos, two years after "Pre Pleasure". About the fine line between independence and isolation — when protecting yourself from someone becomes sabotage. "Walk On Me" is the record's emotional high point.

After Pre Pleasure (2022), Julia Jacklin returns with The Gem, her fourth album, produced by Robert Muinos and released on 4AD. It is the most questioning record she has made: it probes the distance between imagining yourself as a loving person and actually practising that care, and explores how self-protection can, without you noticing, turn into self-sabotage. "Brand New" opens the record treating reinvention almost as voluntary amnesia; "God Sometimes" weighs self-determination against divine intervention; "Real Life" uses dark humour to set intention against action; and "Walk On Me", at six minutes, is the emotional high point — a crescendo about shame and complicity. The closer, "I Wish", acknowledges survival without hiding the cost of loneliness. She remains one of the most honest voices in contemporary Australian folk-rock, and this is perhaps her most disarming record yet.

critics 78 · users 78

Nothing But Thieves
— Stray Dogs

album

LP · 25 Sep 2026

Produced by Dominic Craik, three years after the number one "Dead Club City". Between nu-metal, grunge and stadium rock, testing Conor Mason's vocal range. "American Confidence" sums up the approach well. A British band on form.

Three years after Dead Club City went to number one in the UK, Nothing But Thieves return with Stray Dogs, produced by Dominic Craik — also the man behind the band's riffs — with an earthier, fiercer sound than the previous record. Southend is still home to a band that has never been afraid to experiment, and this time the references run from Queens of the Stone Age and Muse to Smashing Pumpkins, with nu-metal and grunge slipping in through the side door. The lyrics revolve around community, belonging and shared experience, far from the isolated introspection that sometimes defines them. "Evolution" is the most instantly singable track, recalling Gaslight Anthem and Don Henley; "Baby Kool (Evelyn)" has everything it needs to be the record's mainstream hit; and "American Confidence" crosses nu-metal with grunge to show off Conor Mason's vocal range. A fun salvo with bite, exactly what was expected of them at this point in their career.

users 77

featured

Gilla Band
— Pugnello

album

LP · 25 Sep 2026 · Rough Trade

Produced by bassist Daniel Fox: the band's most personal record, about Dara Kiely's grief for his father and a schizophrenia diagnosis, in industrial noise and disfigured pop. The week's best critics' score.

Pugnello arrives as a confession disguised as noise. It is the most personal record Dublin's Gilla Band have ever made, produced by bassist Daniel Fox himself, and it grows out of Dara Kiely's grief over his father's death and a schizophrenia diagnosis that the singer works through song by song — "Alogia" faces it head-on, without metaphors. Sonically it is everything you'd expect from them and more: electronics, post-rock and industrial metal kneaded into an "anti-pop" that screams more than it sings, with Alan Duggan Borges and Adam Faulkner keeping the chaos under rhythmic control. Irish critics have already called them the most revolutionary force in the country's music, on a par with Joyce and Flann O'Brien in the way they turn the surreal into something recognisably Irish. It isn't easy to take in at one sitting, but "The Angelus" at the start and "At the Gallop" at the end show why it is worth the effort. Released on Rough Trade, it has the week's highest critics' score — and not by chance.

critics 88 · users 82

Penelope Isles
— 3

album

LP · 25 Sep 2026 · Bella Union

Third album, four years after "Which Way to Happy" — in the meantime, siblings Jack and Lily Wolter made solo records. Recorded on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, 30 km from the nearest shop. "Moonwalker" is the high point, dream pop with shoegaze.

Siblings Jack and Lily Wolter left Brighton behind — at least for the recording — and ended up on the Isle of Lewis, in Scotland, about thirty kilometres from the nearest shop, to make 3, Penelope Isles' third album, released on Bella Union. It arrives four years after Which Way to Happy, a gap in which both siblings went off on solo careers before reuniting with drummer Joe Taylor. You can hear the isolation: there is a seasonal melancholy and an introspection that wasn't so close to the surface before, even if the lyrics still name-check Brighton. "Moonwalker" is described as the record's strongest song, with a more shoegaze texture; "Bon-bains" brings Lily's intimate voice over a distorted guitar solo; and "Thinking Seat" is classic Penelope Isles dream pop. Critics already consider it the strongest and most rewarding record of the band's career so far.

critics 74

M83
— I Wrote You A Letter

album

LP · 25 Sep 2026 · Other Suns

Anthony Gonzalez's tenth album, released on his own Other Suns. After the grand scale of "Fantasy", now more intimate territory — several tracks don't even have vocals. "Opera" is almost an imaginary room made of organ. An essential name in French synth-pop.

Ten albums in, Anthony Gonzalez keeps reinventing the scale of M83 — this time inwards. I Wrote You A Letter, released on his own label Other Suns, swaps the grandeur of Fantasy (2023) for a more intimate and reserved register, where disillusionment works less as disappointment and more as the removal of a blindfold: a new way of looking at the world. Several tracks are practically instrumental, built on synths, strings and orchestration, with the lyrics kept deliberately simple to leave room for the musical sophistication. "Blister Sunrise" opens with melancholy optimism and a gliding voice; "Opera" is largely instrumental, with an organ creating a vast imagined interior space; and "Losing Ground", with its polyrhythms, is one of the record's strongest moments. The cover, by Jean-Philippe Talaga, already announces the themes of dawn and discovery. A big name, always a safe bet to fill the dancefloor.

users 79

Keo
— Put A Smile On For Me

album

LP · 25 Sep 2026

Debut album from the London band that already has plenty of loyal followers. It's lo-fi nu-grunge and alt rock, between 90s grunge and early Radiohead. Finn and Conor Keogh, Keo's founders, lived in Portugal for part of their teens, and Finn says he writes better when he goes back.

Some bands make their debut cautiously, and then there are bands like Keo: almost entirely live, in ten days, produced by themselves — brothers Finn Keogh (vocals and guitar) and Conor Keogh (bass), with Jimmy Lanwern also on guitar and Oli Spackman on drums. Put A Smile On For Me is the first album from this London four-piece, and the British press has already stuck the "nu-grunge" label on it — nineties grunge, early Radiohead and Ben Howard's vocal tones, all delivered with lo-fi urgency. There is also a direct link to Portugal: the Keogh brothers spent part of their teens in the country — Finn lived here from 14 to 17 — while growing up playing in their father's traditional Irish folk project, between the UK, Ireland, the United States and Portugal. Finn still says he prefers the Portuguese pace of life to London and that he writes better when he goes back, although he admits there isn't really a Portuguese music scene in which to pursue a serious career — hence the move to London. The album's lyrics dive headfirst into a relationship doomed to fail: frustration, regret, guilt, anger and confusion, unfiltered. "Be Happy" opens the record with deliberate irony given its title; "That's Me", "Loser", "Fly", "Pistol" and "Thorn" complete a tracklist that doesn't let the listener go. The October UK tour sold out before the record was even released — and, for the Crowdmusic community, there is an extra reason to feel close to this one.

users 84

Adult DVD
— Adult DVD

album

LP · 25 Sep 2026 · Fat Possum

A Leeds six-piece, released on Fat Possum. The single "Cowboy On Aisle Three" came from a trip to Lidl that got out of hand. Twelve tracks after the EP "Next Day Shipping" (2024). They've already played the Great Escape and SXSW — pure party energy.

Ironic name, serious energy: Adult DVD are a six-piece from Leeds who had already played the Great Escape and SXSW before even releasing a first album, and Adult DVD — the record, named after the band — now arrives on Fat Possum, following the EP Next Day Shipping (2024). Twelve tracks with titles that tell you straight away what they're about — "Coffin Dodger", "World's Best Boss", "Ghillie Suit" — and an absurdist humour that doesn't hide the indie rock ambition behind the joke. The single "Cowboy On Aisle Three" was born, according to singer Harry Hanson, from a perfectly mundane moment: a trip to Lidl that spiralled into an urge to buy everything. That mix of British everyday life and party chaos is what defines the record — a band made to play live, with the crowd jumping. Indie revelation of the year according to NME and Clash, and already known for livening up any room.

users 74